Video Captures Woman Pulling Horse’s Tail, Causing Child to Fall, Fracture Leg — and Now She’s Charged

A woman has been arrested after allegedly pulling the tail of a horse, causing its 5-year-old rider to tumble off and break his leg, according to reports.

On Sunday, Feb. 23, Meri Fuerte said she took her son to the Ocean Views Stable in Daly City, Calif., for a horse ride, KTVU and Fox 26 News report.

While her son was atop the horse, a woman was captured on video running up behind the horse and pulling its tail, spooking the animal and causing the boy to be thrown off, according to KTVU and Fox 26 News.

The woman was standing on the trail next to a man when the boy’s horse passed by, KTVU reports. Fuerte told KTVU the woman laughed after the stunt.

The incident was caught on video, which has since gone viral.

As a result of the fall, the boy fractured his leg and suffered a severe hematoma, Fuerte told KTVU.

Shortly after, Daly City Police Officers responded to the Thorton Beach Recreation Area “to investigate a crime involving a juvenile that occurred earlier in the day,” the Daly City Police Department said in a release.

“Officers learned that during a riding lesson, a juvenile rider fell from a horse after an unknown female subject approached the horse from behind and pulled its tail,” the release alleges.

“The unexpected action startled the horse, resulting in the juvenile being thrown off,” according to the release.

The child “sustained injuries as a result of the fall,” it says.

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The suspect, later identified as Tomasa Panjojleon, 29, of San Francisco, left the area before police arrived.

On Saturday, March 1, she was arrested and charged with felony child endangerment. She was booked into San Mateo County Main Jail in Redwood City. She was released shortly after on bail.

According to KTVU, Ocean View Stables did not know that the boy had broken his leg and did everything they could to help the family. 

“They denied all medical intervention, and said the child is okay,” Caroline Reed, Barn Manager at Ocean View Stables told KTVU.

“So in that situation we ask ‘Do you want to get back on?’ That’s always the cowboy way of doing it, you wanna get back on. They said yes, so the child got back on.

“From the time that it happened until the family ended up fully leaving was about an hour, and during that hour the entire hour that child was running around our property,” she said. “We have  the footage of that, him playing with his sister. There was no limp in these videos.”

Fuerte told KTVU her son didn’t immediately show any sign of a fractured leg after he was thrown from the horse. Now that he has been treated, she said she is incurring large medical bills, she told the outlet.

“I also didn’t think it was fair that she made bail in three hours and lived her life free, knowing that she could have caused the death of a person,” Fuerte said, Fox 26 News reports.